Home... the aftermath

So, The amazing blessing that God gave us... a new house, has also been a ton of work. The reason we were able to afford the house was because of the condition it was in. We had 2 weeks between the day we got keys, and we needed to move in... and it was one of the craziest 2 weeks ever. We called as many people, hosted as many "parties" and used every second of every day to get the house in a livable condition. Just thinking through a few things we did... we scraped off the popcorn ceilings and had them painted, stripped and painted our kitchen cabinets, replaced all the kitchen appliances, added additional base kitchen cabinets, replaced just about all the lighting fixtures, painted every square inch of the inside of the house (ceilings, walls, doors), took out a side part of our master bathroom, installed new shower doors, fixed a running toilet, removed & replaced some wet drywall, re-textured a few walls that needed patches, replaced all electrical switches and outlets, got our roof patched in an area that the seller told us that had "mucho agua" (it is dry now!), got all new carpet upstairs, had the staircase railings re-framed and drywalled, pulled 4.5 tons of trash out of the house that was left by the previous owners, cleaned out the backyard, tilled the dirt and seeded it for grass (they raised chickens and had no grass!), ripped out a shower in the downstairs bathroom where it was illegally installed and re-set the toilet, got a new garage door that would actually open, replaced a side door, and deep cleaned the entire house!!!! This is pretty much what we have done in the last 3 months, but about half of this was done in the first 2 weeks.
The funny thing is that we still have a lot to do with the house. The downstairs still has 13 different tiles in no discernable pattern, so we are going to need to rip them up & re-tile, our roof probably needs to have the whole thing re-done anyways, we want to change out our bathroom vanity, we need to install a house fan, and we need to finish the landscaping in the front and back yards.
For Courtney and myself, we have learned a lot about ourselves from this process of buying a house and the ensuing 3 months of fixing it while living in it. God has taught me a lot about contentment. I tend to be a very driven person. I feel that i cannot relax or stop till the project is done. Well, as many people have told me, the house is never done. If i have that mentality, it means i never get to relax or rest. God invites me to rest in him. It is easy for me to think that God wants me to do all these things for him and once i am done, then i can rest in him. I now see how wrong and destructive that is. God wants us to rest in him, be at peace, and be faithful to the tasks we are given. I need to rest among the uncompleted tasks and projects! In my faith, i am far from being the man God is calling me to be, but that doesn't mean i do not rest, and find peace in God.
Also, i have been learning about God's provision. buying a house has tightened out budget, and we are no longer saving like when we were living in an apartment. With all the news about how bad our economy is, we don't have discretionary money. I can't look at a savings account to trust in. My trust is in God to provide. God is using my house to teach me trust. I think of passages like Matthew 6 that God will provide what i truly need.

-rob